I was fortunate enough to
be raised by a very money conscious woman.
My mother grew up struggling in poverty and when she came to the United States she only had one thing on her mind: To Never Suffer in Poverty EVER Again.
When my mother was a little girl, she developed a very valuable skill that even the richest men and women have difficulty with: finances. Beginning from her childhood, she had kept track of every single cent that was given to her. Later as a teenager she was responsible for her family's finances. After years of living in the United States and becoming American citizens, every time my mother goes to the bank the bankers always tell her that she is one of the top 9 out of millions of Americans with impeccable credit.
As for myself, my student loan is sucking my soul dry & unfortunately for my husband, when he had married me, he had also married my student loan. However, luckily we have managed to find a condo out here in New York. We plan to live happily in our new home with our now growing family, we're expecting a baby boy. But it's taking a long time for the paper work to process and it has been dreadful to us mentally and emotionally. We are frustrated and want to move out as soon as possible. So as you can see we have some current financial commitments: dog, baby, student loans, and condo.
In the mean time we've been talking about cars - which to my mother and my personal financial advisor thinks is the worst idea EVER! I had reassured my mother that it was just an idea that Eduardo & I are pondering upon at the moment. Originally I had my mind set on European cars: Volvo, Saab, and Audi. Eduardo, my husband is in love with the Audi ever since my uncle let us borrow his for a week. I can't deny the car is absolutely gorgeous and very safe! But we had to be realistic so we had decided to start off small.
So we had decided to create a list of cars we thought had a good reputation + reviews. We added that the car must also be safe and of good quality. I had made the list in order of price range and driving distant and there it was, we had made our plan. As we drove around a Blvd in Queens also known as the Auto Dealership Strip we saw a Honda dealership and decided to check out since it was on our list. We had no idea where to park so we decided to park in their parking lot with new cars and other customer's cars. As we entered we were greeted big a jolly elderly dark skinned man with a Creole accent. He had instructed us to go straight to the center of the dealership and ask for an available representative. I knew that if we had chosen to go straight to a representative he/she would try to sell us the car more than inform us. I took my husband by the hand and we went straight to the latest Honda CR-V AWD.
We browsed at the car and it was incredible, we loved the storage units which we currently use for our charger, lip moisturizer, lotion, napkins, first aid kit, dog toys, CDs, pens, post-its and soon we will add some baby stuff in there as well. Impressed, we took pictures and sent it over to my mom with the sticker of the price and other financial information. My mother who was still troubled by the idea stood by her first opinion and disagreed with the car and its price. She said that we should definitely try to get a higher quality car and we knew she meant, wait until you're financially stable and buy an Audi. However, my husband and I stood by our plan and we had decided to get more information from a salesperson on the price range for financing. A very nice gentleman said "Hi. Are you ready to speak with a salesperson?" We looked at him, then looked at each other, smiled and said "Yes!" at the same time. He seemed a bit cocky and said "Well I'm just the manager here, I'll get you a real professional salesman." We were excited and took some pictures to save for when we would make our final decision. The salesman we were introduced to was a young African-American male possibly about 27 or 28.
Now I have a background in sales and I am very good at selling, especially exceeding sales goals. I also have a background in as a manager and I was formerly a Business major. - - I had a feeling that this young man did not want to be at work today. But Eduardo & I both felt confident that he would inform us about the car. He gave us each a sit and sat down himself. He went straight to selling, which was nice but with my sales background and growing up under the influence of a woman with a suffocating gripe on her money, I went down to business as well. Unfortunately when women go out to buy a car for the first time for some reason they feel powerless.
Well Ladies! Take Note:
Here's how it went down:
Salesmen: You guys came at the right time! We are having our annual President's Day Sale.
Me: Thank you! But we're not interested in the special sales, we'd just like to know what the car would cost on a regular non-holiday week.
Salesmen: Well that's impossible to say. We have a promotion every week.
Me: Oh that's nice! But let's say we came in on a regular week, what would the price range be like if we were to finance the vehicle?
Salemen: (looking uneasy) Well... I can't say because... Well there's always a sale.
Me: Okay so how about this, let's say I have between good to excellent credit and I decided to finance that car. The sticker says it's about $25,000 in full, if I wanted to finance it, what would it cost me a month?
Salesmen: Um.... Let me ask my manager real quick. Do you have a driver's license?
Me: Yes.
Salesmen: Can I see it?
Me: Sure!
Salesmen: (takes out a survey) What kind of car do you drive? and blahh blahh...
- We answer his questions and he goes back to his manager -
Eduardo: I wish I had my social security card right now so you can check how much it would cost.
Me: Yeah? Thank God it's at home.
Eduardo sits in his chair feeling confused, eagerly waiting for me to explain myself.
Eduardo: I really don't feel like I'm getting any answers.
Me: I feel like I'm talking to an automated voice system.
Salesmen: Okay. So do you have a social security card or anything?
Me: No. It's okay. Thank you so much for your time. We will think about it.
& then we left with ZERO answers.
But at least we got a chance to see what the car looked like in person & took some awesome photos to keep around in case we decide to choose this car over our other 10 options.
Questions? Please comment below & I will respond shortly.
I hope you enjoyed reading my post.
For more please subscribe
x o x o
Amela Sandra
No comments:
Post a Comment